( Apologies for the late upload. This chapter was written with a lot of side notes from me cause I felt like doing so. Worry not, for this is the only and probably, I said probably, the last one I would do)

“Ha, ha, ha.”

Seated on the bed by the edge of the room was a well grown 180cm tall black haired, brown eyed young man of about 20 or 21 years of age. Dressed in dark coloured pajamas fitting of a man his age. With thin lips and other facial features worthy of a modern day male model, everything would have been alright if not for his state and appearance, which at this point in time was quite messy and worn out with sweat drops stuck on his shirt. Looking at him, one might think he had encountered a fearsome demon or an incubus that sat on his chest[1].

“Can’t believe I’m still having this dream.” *sigh*

Turning his head over to his side, the black haired man tapped a small black cubic object. Upon contact, it projected a light screen that displayed the time and date in a digital form.

6:57 am Friday 21 July 21**

“Since I’m already awake I might as well get ready.” Leaving his room, the young man headed over to the bathroom to freshen up after which he had a change of clothes.

By the time he was all done, he heard a commotion downstairs. Heading over to the stairs, he encountered a similar looking teenage girl of between 15-16 years of age walking up the stairs who also happened to notice him.

With exquisite brown colored eyes, thin lips and facial features that makes one wonder whether she’s a goddess or a model, one could only wish she was theirs. (AN : I still believe 2d is better)

“Hmm, onii-san. I was just about to look for you.”

“Is there a problem?” The young man asked with a look of enquiry.

“No. Grandma was just worried that you might oversleep like yesterday and skip school again.”

“…” The young man sighed and said, ” Don’t worry about it, I just overworked a little last time. As can see, I’m awake and healthy.”

The teenager stared at him and said with a soft voice “Onii-san, please try not to stress yourself too much okay. We still need you.”

“Aww, is my little Hayami worried about big bro? Don’t worry, no harm will come to big bro.” The young man assured her while flexing his muscles.

“Mmm, okay.” Hayami smiled beautifully like the cherry blossoms in Spring.

“Huh, Ojii-san. You’re up already?”

Going down the stairs, the young man saw an elderly man sitting on the couch in the Living room with a tablet in hand browsing through the daily news(AN : Yes, newspapers are obsolete, far obsolete). A look at him and one might think he was actually a middle aged man of about 40 years of age but the adjective “elderly” written by the author wasn’t for show. A closer look at the man and a couple of wrinkles would be seen together with the vibe his eyes give off as one who has seen a lot; a testament to the years spent aging. Despite that, he looked as healthy and energy-filled as your average middle aged man, so much so that he might not have a problem running a marathon. (AN : Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the future).

The old man chuckled “Haha, don’t compare me to your sorry ass bum, Sato-kun.”

“Ojii-san, you really should stop addressing onii-san as -chan. He’s already a man, he might get angry.” Hayami chuckled softly with with her left hand against her lips, looking like an angel whose every move knows no bounds.

“Haha, that’s why you’re my favorite, Hayami-chan. Come over and sit with little old me let’s talk about school. Uh, on second thought head over to the kitchen and go help you’re grandma out.”

“Okay.” Hayami nodded and headed over to the kitchen.

After she was gone, the old man stood up and walked to the door while saying “Sato, come walk with me.”

“Okay.”

“Alice-chan, keep our meals hot for us. We are gonna go take a walk.”

A sweet voice then came out from the kitchen, “Okay honey. Be back before 8.”

“Alright.” The old man replied.

The family resided in a 2 story bungalow located in the common area located in Shinjuku City of Shinano subprefecture[2]. The Shinano subprefecture of Okanawa Prefecture is a slightly above average subprefecture comprising of 2 cities and 3 towns which includes Shinjuku and Jin cities. Though not home to a lot of big businesses and companies, Shinjuku city is quite a successful city with various mid class companies taking home there and a few high class companies having branches there. According to the Alliance laws pertaining to city standards and classifications, the Shinjuku city is a 2nd class city together with its sister city in Shinano subprefecture, Jin city.

The common area of Shinjuku city, consisting of about 60% of the city mostly at the city’s perimeters, is quite a nice place to be. One shouldn’t be fooled by the term common area as that is just a nickname given to it. It consists of the residential areas of most of its denizens, school buildings and health care centers with less than 1% belonging to the Garuba district, the red light district of Shinjuku. Of the remaining 40% of Shinjuku, 36% belongs to the industrial, governmental and economic sector housing both company buildings and a few industries together with most important government buildings including the mayor’s office and has been nicknamed the city center. The remaining 4% of the city is nicknamed the Yanai district[3] which houses most of the wealthy people and officials in Shinjuku.

Walking along the street of block 27[4], Sato admired the buildings and houses that had accompanied him for the past 10 years in silence, walking side by side with his grandfather.

2 minutes, Old Juro spoke, “Sato-kun, you know your grandmother isn’t so happy about your current behaviour of skipping school and stressing yourself over games right?”

“…yes”

Old Juro nodded, “For some reason she’s still stuck with that idea of hers that anything that isn’t achieved through education and hard work is futile, but you should know she’s still proud of you no matter what you do. We know you got framed and lost your previous job but you shouldn’t let that get the best of you. It’s already been a year since that happened. What I’m trying to say is, you shouldn’t tire yourself out. You’re still young and still have lots of opportunities. Leave it to your grandma and I to take care of you guys now. You are pretty much done with your education and all you need is a job. You could either go Pro with gaming or become a programmer or work for some company, just don’t overdo it you hear me?”

Sato replied, ” Ojii-san, don’t worry about me. I’ve already forgotten about all that, after all they still paid me. You don’t need to worry about work, you’re old already just leave it to me.”

“Haha, what are you saying kid, I’m as healthy as a man your age.” Old Juro laughed and patted his biceps after which he continued, “By the way, I’ve noticed that you have been saving up for something. If I am correct, it should be for a new game right?”

Sato asked with a surprised look “How did you know?”

“It doesn’t matter how I knew. Check your account, I sent you a little something. Don’t worry, I just got paid recently for my new program. I told you not to underestimate this old man.” Old juro chuckled.

“Ojii-san, thank you. I won’t let you guys down.” Sato said sincerely.

Old Juro nodded. “By the way, a word of advice, I know you have suffered recently but remember, you can’t do everything alone. Now let’s head back; I’m starving for breakfast.”

“Alright.”

After breakfast, Sato and Hayami left the house for school. Sato studied at the

Shinjuku School of Engineering and mechanics (which is a college) while Hayami, who was still in highschool, studied at Saitama Kokusai Public High school.

Both institutions were located in the common area and are quite close to one another, hence Sato and Hayami often walk together to school since the distance is about a 15 minutes walk from home. Sometimes doing their journey, people mistake them for a couple fit for one another due to their good looks.(AN : Nope, I’m not hinting to any incest ideas..)

After escorting Hayami to her school, Sato didn’t go straight to school but headed a little deeper into the city only stopping when he approached a store with the title, ‘The Gamebox Guide’.

The Gamebox Guide was actually a company that deals in retail sale, distribution and delivery of Gaming consoles and headsets or plugs, drives, VR headsets and cabinets alongside gaming cells (AN : Think of it as gaming CDs but more advanced) for those who prefer hard copies. The company also deals in the sale and auctioning of gaming CDs and flash-drives from the Old Era. Simply put, anything pertaining to games and gaming can be found here.

‘ It’s been released since earlier this week. I hope they still have more.’ As it stands, it turned out that Sato’s grandfather was right and he was saving for a new game. Infinite Realm, an upcoming VR game that claims to redefine all present beliefs of VR was scheduled to launch on the 22 July previously released their VR helmets together with their Universal AdapterA for sale on 17th July Monday.

Stepping into the store, Sato walked around until he discovered the isle that held the stands for the IR (Infinite Realm) VR headsets which had only 7 sets remaining.

‘At least they still have it’ Sato let out a sigh of relief and walked towards it.

“Yi*, don’t you think the price is a little bit high for a VR headset?” (AN : Not a name but more of an exclamation like hey)

“I know right. The company’s gotta be kidding me. Let’s check out another one”

Upon approaching the stand, Sato overheard two guys who happened to be close by exclaiming at the price of the sets.

‘If I hadn’t checked the price speculations online I might have ended up like these guys. Even still, it costs a lot. If not for selling my previous gaming sets and the money grandfather gave me, it would have taken me a week more to buy it’ Sato sighed internally while staring at the price tag with the figures 749.99 ALD.

The average salary of most people is between 1500-6800 ALD. For a gaming VR headset to be priced at 750 ALD more than triple the 225 ALD for other sets, it is not surprising that most people would ignore it.

Despite that, the Company Dreamland Studios and Corporation, that designed the set, refused to reduce the price claiming that the price is already economical and affordable as it is, speculating that with the various softwares and resources used, it was supposed to be priced at 1050 ALD. Hence a price of 749.99 ALD is already quite cheap and considerate.

Even knowing that all the words spewed by the company’s representative was total rubbish and business propaganda, Sato still purchased the set alongside a few accessories, spending his hard saved 1000 ALD with little change left to spare.

Once he was done, he requested for a delivery, as going to school with a VR gaming set and accessories is quite weird.

Leaving the store, Sato headed over to college. However, upon taking a few steps away, he seemed to hear a voice calling him.

“Hey Sato-san, Sato-san !”

Author’s note :

I really have to apologize that my release rate is slow and that chapter 1 is really really long. I actually planned on making it chapter 2 rather than chapter 1 part 2 and so on but because I had an original idea for 2 and also chapter 1 was a hell lot longer than I expected, here we are…

I might drop the honorifics later.

Why does MC have to go to a store and not order online? Cause he wants to! Deal with it !

A) You know how Xbox and PlayStation both have their own consoles well you see here, every game has it’s own VR helmet. However, a universal VR helmet was recently introduced, that allows you to play any game as long as you install the certified app( that is the company’s corresponding Universal Adapter) that enables you to connect to the game’s server. Think of it as how you use Facebook app to connect to Facebook and not YouTube to connect to Facebook, on your phone. The Universal VR helmet is the phone while the certified app is like the Facebook app which you use to connect to the game’s server.

1)A legend that revolves around sleep paralysis used to describe the origin of sleep paralysis though science says otherwise…